Entry tags:

pimp: complete list, pimp: i spy

Pimp: I Spy (TV)
If your only experience of I Spy is the Eddie Murphy-Owen Wilson fiasco, forget everything you think you know about this show. That film has nothing to do with the original I Spy.

Yeah. Thought that might get your attention.


The Background

I Spy was a pioneering television show in several ways. It was the first show to feature a true buddy partnership, the first to make an attempt to realistically portray the unglamorous aspects of the spy business, and the first to use international locations extensively. Its production values were also above the norm, featuring innovative direction and actual orchestrated scores for each episode rather than the typical array of canned themes heard on most Sixties TV. Perhaps most importantly from a posterity standpoint, it was also the first to feature a black man and a white man as equals. All of this makes I Spy a show that is remarkably fresh and undated for a forty-year-old television show.

The fact that it was also slashy as hell is a lovely bonus for those of us who enjoy such things.

I Spy ran from 1965-1968 and as it was originally conceived by hit producer Sheldon Leonard would be a “realistic” spy show, completely devoid of the gadgets featured on the popular Man from U.N.C.L.E. It would also feature a black co-star, though the concept of his being an equal partner originated with Robert Culp, the show's white star. Culp was something of a maverick in television – a highly intelligent actor and writer who didn't suffer fools gladly, he was at the top of his game in the mid-Sixties. From the start, he had a vision for the show that didn't always match Leonard's, but was never boring, and was often brilliant.



The decision to bring in twenty-eight-year-old comedian Bill Cosby to play Culp's partner was a risk, one Cosby himself wasn't sure at first he should take. Certainly he was making a name for himself in comedy, and he was easy on the eyes, charismatic and popular, but he was the first one to admit he wasn't an actor. The pilot, filmed on location in Hong Kong, was passable, but the network balked at Cosby's wooden delivery; his lack of experience was obvious.



But by this point, Culp was sure Cosby was the right man for the role, and proceeded to take him under his wing, coaching him and helping him make the transition from comedian to actor. It must have worked; Cosby won the Emmy for best actor two years running, beating Culp out both times. In its time, I Spy became one of the most highly-rated shows on television, and made household names of Culp and Cosby. What helps it to endure after forty years, however, is the enduring appeal of the Cosby-Culp chemistry, which is legendary, and has never been successfully copied.



The Basics

Robert Culp played Kelly Robinson, a jet-setting “tennis bum” who uses this cover when he transforms into a spy. Cosby was Alexander Scott, a Rhodes scholar fluent in several languages who posed as his trainer. They had adventures around the world, often involving beautiful women:



or nasty villains:



The scenery was breathtaking:



and the action was thrilling:




The Pretty and the Angsty and the Slashy

This being the Sixties, the general rule of thumb was to exploit your male leads' bodies shamelessly. This was definitely Not a Bad Thing, because Culp and Cosby looked damned fine in skimpy outfits:









(Yes, I know you're traumatized that the man who sold you pudding when you were a child was that hot. Deal.)

Incidentally, here's one of my favourite selections from the NBC mail bag for the show:

Dear Mr. Friedkin: Put a shirt on Robert Culp. What is the bit with he and/or Cosby going shirtless? Is it to please the sex-frustrated females, the perverts or homosexuals???? Both he and Bill are splendid actors and I Spy will go on forever, but it is disgusting to see either of them parading around dressed to please the sex-crazed watchers. It may please pink shirt Johnny Carson, but real males find it disgusting. F.M.W., Lima, New York

Kelly and Scotty were fairly realistic spies (all right, there was also a fair amount of crack, but remember this was the Sixties), which meant that they often dealt with their enemies in rather cold-blooded fashion. They were also fully aware that as far as their government was concerned, they were completely expendable. This often led to angst of the first order, never more poignant than in the Culp-written episode “Home To Judgment”, in which we get some insight into Kelly's childhood when he and Scotty hide out in Kelly's uncle's barn:



Your 30-30 was there for me when I was tall enough to reach it and take it down by myself. And I would have made it next summer because I was tall and skinny...but that winter my mom died and next summer never came. Now I've come and I wish I hadn't. I'm sorry.

Of the two, Kelly is the more angsty: he can be petulant and charming and slutty and silly and jealous and catty as well as brave and witty and loving, and he sometimes gives the impression of a man who could very easily lose touch with his humanity. In those moments, the only one who can pull him back from the edge is Scotty.

Scotty is not without his complications, but he gives the impression of being more comfortable in his skin, more at ease with his place as one of the “good guys”. He knows damned well, however, that their position as “heroes” is precarious, as in the episode “It's All Done With Mirrors”. When his fellow agents are convinced that Kelly has been compromised, Scotty is perfectly willing to go against direct orders to terminate Kelly, instead putting his life in his partner's hands. He was right to do it, because even brainwashed to believe his partner is a traitor, Kelly can't bring himself to kill Scotty. In the end, both men know that all they have, all they can trust, is one another.



You couldn't harm a hair on my head.

Which brings us to the slash.

The Kelly/Scotty partnership is something that can't be adequately conveyed by screencaps, because to truly experience the Cosby/Culp dynamic, you must hear it as well as see it (yes, I'm putting the slash in there deliberately; these two men fell in homosocial love with one another pretty much from the beginning, and they're still friends after forty plus years). Culp and Cosby developed their own language, a kind of jazzy back-and-forth that was often adlibbed, much to the chagrin of producers and writers and the delight of audiences. Their interactions are often funny, sometimes pure crack, and sometimes they add an edge and dimension to the characters that wasn't there in the original script.

Kelly: What do you say? Plan X?

Scotty: Plan X?

Kelly: Yeah, X.

Scotty: Don't tell me Plan X. Don't give me no letter, man. Tell me what you want to do.

Kelly: How come every time I give you one of those hippie things, you embarrass me? Plan X. That's where one, or both of us, messes up.

Scotty: That's Plan Y, man.

It's clear that they're completely in synch with one another; there's no manufactured conflict, no battle for the upper hand. To see them together is a beautiful thing:

















The Fandom

Despite the rich potential, I Spy is a tiny fandom, with literally a handful of slash writers and a few gen writers. The fandom has some afficionados who have created websites and message boards:

The I Spy Forum

The I Spy Resource Center

I Spy (an annoying number of pop-ups but features a good ep guide)

I Spy: A Tribute to the Coolest Spies in Television History (features the theme and info on some of the ephemera, including the Mad Magazine spoof and the comics)

A word of caution: if you're a slasher, be careful about playing in these pools, as the fans you find here may not be terribly tolerant of slash. For all its pioneering spirit, I Spy is a forty-year-old television show, and some of the fans, even those on the internet, are not of the body.

Recently, aka_arduinna has created an archive for fic:

True True: The I Spy Archive

There you'll find some of the slash authors I know of, including the empress of I Spy slash, Dorinda. Her site is here. Dorinda has also kindly filled in the gaps in my author links below.

purna writes great IS fic; all of it is available at her I Spy fiction tag.

Silverhammer has two fics here and here.

PFL has I Spy slash fics here.

Hyel has written one here.

And since I have no shame, here's the link to my site.

I've found one gen author, Double O Nothing, here.

There's another gen page here (courtesy of Dorinda).

You can also find my I Spy screencap galleries here.

I have not yet come across any I Spy art, though przed's vid I Would Die for You is absolutely gorgeous. You will have to e-mail her to get a password to access her site, but it's worth it.

These are good places to start if you want to get a feel for the visuals of the show and some of the plots. Of course, the best way to get a feel for the show is to see the eps, which are now available on DVD and at Netflix, though they seem to offer different choices at different times. There's a good amount of source – 82 one-hour episodes – and there's a reunion movie which, while forgettable for the most part, gives some additional canon. You can't go wrong with the Robert Culp eps, which are contained on two DVDs in the third box of the collection.

UPDATE, SEPT 1, 2008: Amazon.com – Box set 1 Box set 2 Box set 3 are now available again, and for the lowest prices I've ever seen them at. Definitely the time to grab them - you can now get the whole series for $36 USD, which is awesome. Canadians can get the whole set for $55 and free shipping at Amazon.ca.

Deep Discount DVD's selection also varies; right now they're offering them for even less than Amazon -a little over $40 for the whole set.

There are also A LOT of free eps available on AOL. Also at this site, which is unfortunately only available to US residents.

Finally, there's this recent book that's - well, it's not brilliantly written, but it does have lots of info on the show and the eps, and it's the only book out there that attempts to do justice to I Spy.

What else can I say? If you like buddy shows, if you like hot men, if you like angst and humour and crack and pretty scenery and some of the most compelling chemistry between two actors that has ever flared like a supernova upon the small screen, then this show is for you. And I hope that some of you will be compelled to use your fannish talents to write, vid, draw, create macramé renditions of Kelly and Scotty, or generally proclaim your love to the skies. I will be happy to make you icons, to rec episodes, to beta fic, and to loudly cheer you on.